Ernabella Arts is an Aboriginal owned art and craft centre that commenced operation in 1948, thus making it Australia’s oldest, continuously operating, indigenous art centre. Ernabella artists have achieved distinction as hand loom weavers, batik artists, painters, print makers, ceramicists, screen printers, applied designers, wood carvers, hand spun woollen mukata/beanies and hand woven spinifex baskets and sculptures. The centre is used by approximately 70 people of all ages during the course of the year. A core group of approximately twenty artists comes every day to engage in at least one of the art practices described, and today painting and ceramics are the main art forms. Although Ernabella Arts has primarily been a women’s space, nowadays senior men paint there and younger men are working in the ceramics studio, which is a first for arts practice in the APY Lands. The men are re-defining the work that is produced by Ernabella and a new audience of discerning, fine art collectors are now drawn to this historical art centre by the senior men’s raw, tjukurpa (creation story)-rich paintings.
